Town officials in Rye are considering a law requiring dog owners to use a leash on public property.

The proposal was spurred by an incident last month, in which a dog was shot at a public park in Rye after it began fighting with another owner's dog. The man who fired the shots has been charged with reckless conduct.

A leash law has the support of the town's chief of police who says his officers spend too much responding to dog-related calls.

Selectmen will decide later this month whether to put a leash law on the ballot for voters this March.

New IRS advice on prepaying property taxes for 2018 suggests New Hampshire residents may not be able to deduct those prepayments from this year's tax bill – but lots of homeowners in towns that allow prepayments are trying anyway.

The state’s highest court has affirmed the public’s access to a beach in Rye across land owned by the Wentworth by the Sea Country Club, but the court overturned a court order that would have forced the club’s owner owner, Bill Binnie, to pay the plaintiffs legal fees.

The decision is the final turn in a legal fight that started in 2012, when Wentworth by the sea owner Bill Binnie used boulders bushes and a fence to blocked public access to Little Harbor Beach via Sanders Poynt.

At thirteen miles in length, New Hampshire has the shortest coastline of any US state (excluding those with no coast at all). But what it lacks in distance, it makes up for in vibrancy. As part of our series Life on the Seacoast, I traveled the full length of NH's coast, along Highway Route 1, stopping each mile to document the happenings and the habitats on the way.

Authorities have identified a 45-foot dead whale that washed onto rocks near Rye State Park as an 18-year-old female named Snow Plow.

The Portsmouth Herald reports that fishermen had reported seeing the humpback whale's corpse floating 20 miles out to sea on Sunday. Officials believe it had been dead for several days before washing ashore.

Officials from New Hampshire Fish and Game, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and the New England Aquarium were called in to investigate the cause of death.

A state health official says the state is monitoring after a study found a cluster of cases of a rare form of a pediatric cancer in southeastern New Hampshire.

State Epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan says they didn't find any behavioral or environmental risk factors deemed a contributor to the "small excess number of cases."

The report published last month was launched after a child in Rye was diagnosed in early 2014. The study found less than five cases in the area over a decade. That's still higher than average. The study didn't indicate a link.

A judge has ruled that the public can use private land to get to Rye Beach because they've been doing so for more than 20 years.

The case was brought by 24-year Rye resident Robert Jesurum. The Sanders Poynt property and adjacent Wentworth by the Sea Country Club are owned by Bill Binnie.

The Portsmouth Herald reports that Superior Court Judge Marguerite Wageling said her ruling "may extend not only to beach access, but to parking and boat-launching rights." That will be determined later.

This year marks the 400th anniversary of Capt. John Smith's voyage and mapping of New England, and the dedication of a new monument to him in Rye, New Hampshire. The obelisk at Rye Harbor State Park is made of four pieces of New Hampshire granite and has a bronze reproduction of Smith's map. It's enlarged to 26 inches tall from the original size of 12 inches.

Selectmen in the Seacoast town of Rye have voted to require cyclists to ride single file on all roads in the town. The ordinance passed despite opposition from the community, and it also requires pedestrians to walk single file on Rye roads.

Similar rules are in place in Newington and Newcastle. Supporters of single file ordinances say that the narrow, winding roads on the seacoast don’t have space for two cyclists abreast.

The rule became a flashpoint after Rye’s chief of police put up a traffic sign that read, “Roads are for riding not chatting. Ride single file.”

Tonight selectmen in Rye will hear from the town's lawyer about the legality of a new cycling ordinance in that town. Cycling - both for commuting and recreation - is on the rise, but so too is the number of cars on the road, and recently on the seacoast, tensions between cyclists and drivers have flared.